MONTICELLO – A school bus accident onHighway 84 and West Side Road in Lawrence County involving acollision with a pickup truck resulted in 14 students and thedriver of the pickup being transported to Lawrence County HospitalThursday afternoon to be treated for minor injuries, according toschool district officials.

    A Lawrence County School District bus in the middle of its routepulled in front of a 2006 Ford F-150 pickup truck and was struck onits right rear wheel, school district transportation director MikeSmith said.

    “The sun was kind of bad at that time of the evening, and afterletting two cars pass before he pulled out, the bus driver did notsee the truck,” Smith said.

    Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Rusty Boyd said the accidentoccurred at 3:35 p.m.

    The bus was attempting to cross Highway 84 on northbound West SideDrive, cleared the eastbound lanes of the highway and pulled intothe path of the westbound pickup truck, Boyd said.

    Smith said three children on the bus were transported by ambulanceto Lawrence County Hospital, and 11 more were taken to the hospitalfor precautions. He said all injuries to students were minor.

    The driver of the pickup truck, Boyce Bullock, 77, of Brookhaven,was also taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries,according to Boyd.

    “I stayed at the hospital until about 9 p.m. last night,” Smithsaid Friday morning. “All the children that went were seen andreleased. We’re very fortunate that it was just some bumps andbruises.

    “The children were scared at the scene, but one senior student wasreally an angel of mercy for them,” he continued. “She really did afantastic job of calming the children until everyone got onscene.”

    Smith said about 25 students were on the bus at the time of theaccident. No students’ names were released.

    He said the sheriff’s department, the Monticello Fire Department,county supervisors, the Monticello mayor, school district officialsand parents soon populated the scene.

    “I’m really proud of the way everybody handled it,” Smith said.”It’s an unfortunate thing, but (accidents) do happen sometimes. Ifyou got to have an accident, you couldn’t have handled it anybetter than everyone did. You couldn’t ask for anythingbetter.”

    Superintendent Tony Davis echoed Smith’s sentiments about thefortunate outcome of the accident that could have been much worse,they said.

    “We hate for it to happen, of course,” he said. “I think we justhandled it quite well and everybody kept calm. I’m so glad there’sno big drama to report.”